Argument:"The falling revenues that the company is experiencing coincide with delays in manufacturing. These delays, in turn, are due in large part to poor planning in purchasing metals. Consider further that the manager of the department that handles purchasing of raw materials has an excellent background in general business, psychology, and sociology, but knows little about the properties of metals. The company should, therefore, move the purchasing manager to the sales department and bring in a scientist from the research division to be manager of the purchasing department."
The above excerpt suggests that the purchasing manager should be moved to sales and a scientist from the research division should be brought in his place as he has better knowledge about metals. This special knowledge of metals will help him plan purchases well enough and thus reduce delays which in turn will mitigate the falling revenues. The statement has been based on a lot of assumptions, which are not necessarily true. Delays can be caused due to various reasons and might not always lead to drop in revenues.
First, manufacturing delays is assumed to be the cause of falling revenues. But there can be other factors that may lead to drop in revenues. For instance, the economic downturn of 2008 had led to loss of revenues for so many companies. Another example can be the severe competition between Flipkart and Amazon in India that reduced the revenues for both the companies. There is a possibility that there might be some severe operational issue that has led to production loss. Thus, it is wrong to assume that manufacturing delays has caused falling revenues.
Second, the argument states that poor planning is the cause of delays which has resulted in dwindling revenues. There can again be many other causes for poor planning. There may also exist a possibility where the planning is spot on but some problem in the external supply chain that has led to the delay in the procurement of metal. Maybe, the metal supplier has lost its license to mine metals and thus does not have enough inventory to meet the customer demand.
Third, it is also assumed that to manage the metal purchasing department one needs to have adequate knowledge about metals. This assumption is flawed as purchasing is more of a logistics task than anything else. In the business world itself, for example, most of the people in the purchasing department of, say, an engineering company are generally accountants and not engineers. Moreover, the purchasing department of any company has two deal with two kinds of stakeholders- Internal customers who specify their demands and requirements to the purchasing department and External supplier who satisfies the company's requirement. Therefore, purchasing department is a bridge that manages lot of expectations and thus the manager of such a department should be efficient in handling business and managing expectation, which is clearly not a forte for the scientist.
In conclusion, the argument is flawed and irrational and thus the conditions should be re-evaluated. The author can strengthen his claim by specifying more details about the planning related to metal procurement and the delay caused by it. The author can also assess his argument by analyzing all external factors and thus make points that will leave no loose ends in his argument.
The above excerpt suggests that the purchasing manager should be moved to sales and a scientist from the research division should be brought in his place as he has better knowledge about metals. This special knowledge of metals will help him plan purchases well enough and thus reduce delays which in turn will mitigate the falling revenues. The statement has been based on a lot of assumptions, which are not necessarily true. Delays can be caused due to various reasons and might not always lead to drop in revenues.
First, manufacturing delays is assumed to be the cause of falling revenues. But there can be other factors that may lead to drop in revenues. For instance, the economic downturn of 2008 had led to loss of revenues for so many companies. Another example can be the severe competition between Flipkart and Amazon in India that reduced the revenues for both the companies. There is a possibility that there might be some severe operational issue that has led to production loss. Thus, it is wrong to assume that manufacturing delays has caused falling revenues.
Second, the argument states that poor planning is the cause of delays which has resulted in dwindling revenues. There can again be many other causes for poor planning. There may also exist a possibility where the planning is spot on but some problem in the external supply chain that has led to the delay in the procurement of metal. Maybe, the metal supplier has lost its license to mine metals and thus does not have enough inventory to meet the customer demand.
Third, it is also assumed that to manage the metal purchasing department one needs to have adequate knowledge about metals. This assumption is flawed as purchasing is more of a logistics task than anything else. In the business world itself, for example, most of the people in the purchasing department of, say, an engineering company are generally accountants and not engineers. Moreover, the purchasing department of any company has two deal with two kinds of stakeholders- Internal customers who specify their demands and requirements to the purchasing department and External supplier who satisfies the company's requirement. Therefore, purchasing department is a bridge that manages lot of expectations and thus the manager of such a department should be efficient in handling business and managing expectation, which is clearly not a forte for the scientist.
In conclusion, the argument is flawed and irrational and thus the conditions should be re-evaluated. The author can strengthen his claim by specifying more details about the planning related to metal procurement and the delay caused by it. The author can also assess his argument by analyzing all external factors and thus make points that will leave no loose ends in his argument.
